FIGHTING TO FINISH
Beating Colts would be real way for team to shock NFL world.
Jerod Mayo patrolled the middle of the New England defense like a hard-hitting furnace of energy.
Mayo delivered punishing hits and carried out strategies devised by Bill Belichick. Between his speed, toughness and intelligence, Mayo outwitted offenses as a true sideline-to-sideline, three-down defender.
Known for haunting darkened film rooms, Mayo immediately earned the respect of a veteran Patriots team and was the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2008. He became an All-Pro linebacker before retiring after eight seasons because of injuries.
Mayo, 34, is emerging as a rising star in NFL coaching circles. Many predict a fast rise fromhis current job as Patriots inside linebackers coach to ultimately become a firsttime head coach.
For a Texans franchise in flux and in need of leadership after firing coach and general manager Bill O’Brien, Mayo is an intriguing potential candidate with a lot of strong qualities in terms of football acumen and intangible traits.
“Jerod is a strong leader of men,” one NFL source said. “He’s incredibly smart with outstanding emotional intelligence and knowledge. I wouldn’t bet against him becoming a head coach very soon and being very successful.
“Just look at what Brian Flores is doing with the Dolphins. He was coaching the Patriots’ linebackers and now he’s turned Miami into a winning team. Jerod is a high-character person capable of energizing a franchise.”
In his second season of coaching after retiring in 2016 andworking in the financial sector and as a media analyst, Mayo could follow a similar fast track that another former Patriots linebacker, Mike Vrabel, traveled to become the Tennessee Titans head coach.
“I think Mayo will be an unbelievable head coach because he learned from the best coach (Belichick) to ever coach and he ran a defense as a rookie that has so many levels of complexity to it,” said former Patriots and Texans nose tackle Vince Wilfork. “It’s just amatter of time when his number will be called.”
The perspective that Mayo provides as a former player and his ability to connect with players on a personal level are among the qualities cited frequently by thosewho know him best.
“Juice.”
It’s a word that often comes up in conversations about Mayo because of his infectious personality and intensity.
During Belichick’s coaching tenure in New England, which includes winning six Super Bowls, he has only hired two position coaches without any previous coaching experience: Mayo and Pepper Johnson, another retired inside linebacker.
“Jerod’s done a great job,” Belichick told New England reporters. “His experience as a player in our system is very valuable. We can talk about calls that we can make on the field or identifications and so forth and his perspective of, ‘Yeah, that’s no problem. That’d be easy. That’s easy for us todo,’ or ‘That’s a lot harder because the player is thinking about this.’
“That makes us rethink and have that perspective of how easy it is or isn’t for a player in certain situations. He’s done it and he’s done it under pressure and dealt with a lot of things we currently deal with, and so that’s a good perspective to have in the room. Nobody works harder than Jerod does.”
When the Patriots drafted Mayo, he quickly earned the respect of veteran linebackers like Tedy Bruschi and Vrabel. At 22 years old, Mayo became the bridge between the coaching staff and the locker room.
When Mayo retired, it wasn’t long before he was invited to join the coaching profession. In many ways, hewas a coach all along even during his playing days.
“Jerod was the Tom Brady of our defense, hewas extremely smart,” said former Patriots offensive tackle Sebastian Vollmer, a former University of Houston stand out. “If it’s just words and you don’t deliver on the football field, then you’re just a rah-rah and people will basically tolerate you. If you put it all together, if you’re one of the greats like Brady, then it’s different. Jerod was an All-Pro, a guywho knew everything. He knew everything that was happening, knew all the calls. It’s like having another coach on the field. He was a leader of men, and there are very few people I would describe that way. If he was in the locker roomin the facility or in the cafeteria for lunch, it wouldn’t take 30 seconds before every seat was taken.
“Some people have a personality that draws people in. Hemakes you feel good about what you’re doing. He can read the room perfectly. As a captain, he knew when to be serious. He knew when to step up and make people fall in line. He also knew when to keep it light. When you play for the Patriots, you have a certain respect for Bill Belichick and Jerod had no problem reading the roomand going to Bill’s office and saying, ‘Listen, these guys can’t be in pads today, they need rest.’ He could bridge the wall between the head coach and players. That is rare to see.”
Former Detroit coach Matt Patricia, Mayo’s position coach and defensive coordinator in New England, was struck by Mayo’s cerebral nature and how he kept a detailed notebook and had a thirst for scouting reports about opponents and intricately involved in every aspect of the Patriots’ game plans.
“Jerod and I go way back, andhe loves the game,” Patricia said this week before being fired Saturday. “He’s extremely smart. He’s studying all of the time. All of that experience, he took as a player and you see it from him as a coach. I think he does a great job with those guys. I’m very close to him. He’s like one ofmy sons.”
Growing up in Virginia, Mayo learned a strong work ethic from his grandfather. In his spare time, Mayo would work as a handyman at the apartments owned by his family.
“The same stuff, he carried when he was a player, he’s definitely still got it,” Patriots linebacker Dont’a Hightower said. “He’s a hell of a coach. Honestly, I wouldn’t expect anything less. He’s got so much knowledge and so much wisdom that he brings, not just as a football player.
“He’s definitely done it. He’s seen it. He’s played it. The reputation that he has, he’s an All-Pro, so it’s great to have a linebacker coach who has been through so much and can relate to a lot.”
As a player, Mayo became known for his prodigious and unusual work ethic. He rarely took a day off, showing up in Foxborough at the team facility for extra workouts and film sessions on his own even when coaches weren’t at Gillette Stadium.
“While it was quite spectacular what Jerod did as a player, I think he’d be a great head coach,” Vollmer said. “When he was hired as an assistant, I told my wife: ‘He’s going to either be a coordinator or a head coach in three years.’ The impact that guy has, it’s really hard to describe.
“He has learned from the best and can put his own style and stamp on it. If he does anything close to what he’s done as a man and a player and an assistant coach and can translate that into being a head coach, that would be phenomenal. Nothing Jerod does would surpriseme.”
Mayo is known off the field for his philanthropic works in Boston where he’s helped raise millions of dollars for Boston Medical Center Pediatrics andwas named a member of the Boston Medical Center’s board of trustees. A former executive in residence for Optum, the technology division of UnitedHealthGroup, the health insurance company, Mayo started the annual Mayo Bowl with his wife, Chantel, to help sick children.
“If you look at it froma different perspective playing into the business arena, Jerod went up the ladder so quick,” Vollmer said. “Whatever he touches has success behind him.”
Mayo definitely carries head coaching ambitions while maintaining his focus on his current job.
“I would be lying if I said I never wanted to be a head coach,” Mayo told New England reporters. “Just trying to learn as much as I can from coach Belichick and the rest of the staff. I try to pick the offensive coaches’ minds, as well.
“I’m trying to just get this all-encompassing view of the game. It’s been great. The good thing about being here in New England whether as a player or a coach is it’s all about football and nothing else. It’s been good.”
An ultra-productive linebacker Mayo piled up 803 career tackles, 11 sacks, eight forced fumbles, three interceptions and seven fumble recoveries. He doubled as a teammate who could always be counted on to do and say the right thing.
“When they drafted me in 2009, Jerod had got there the year before me and he was already a team captain,” Vollmer said. “He had the respect from everybody. We really got close in 2010 during the NFL lockout. We worked out together every day and became really good friends. If you workout with Jerod, you better go really hard. Hewould always push me to do more.
“There are two kinds of leaders. There are the kind of people that just talk and enjoy being the leader and aren’t necessarily as authentic. Then, there are people who simply are a real leader. With Jerod, it comes natural to him. He doesn’t get a high from being a captain and wielding power. What Jerod does, that’s not for the cameras. That’s just being authentic and real. That can’t be faked. Jerod is real.”